(37452) Spirit Outer Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 24 September 1960 by van Houten, C. J., van Houten-Groeneveld, I., Gehrels, T. at Palomar.
Spirit is one of NASA's successful 2004 Mars Exploration Rovers. It explored rocks and minerals in Gusev Crater.Naming citation (20040928/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
👶 Spirit as a baby name🐶 Spirit as a dog name🐱 Spirit as a cat name
Where Spirit is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Spirit is 4.46 au from the Sun and 5.37 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 37452 |
| Provisional designation | 4282 P-L |
| Orbit class | Outer Main-belt Asteroid |
| Diameter | 8.89 km (#5,843 largest of 17,440 named asteroids with a measured size) |
| Albedo | 0.0560 |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 14.31 |
| Orbital period | 7.84 years |
| Semi-major axis | 3.95 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 3.07 – 4.83 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.223 |
| Inclination | 8.27° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 2.08 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Also named after someone called Mars
All asteroids named after someone called Mars
Also discovered on 24 September 1960
- (1743) Schmidt
- (1744) Harriet
- (1776) Kuiper
- (1777) Gehrels
- (1795) Woltjer
- (1808) Bellerophon
- (1809) Prometheus
- (1810) Epimetheus
- (1811) Bruwer
- (1812) Gilgamesh
- (1846) Bengt
- (1868) Thersites